Theresa May defends her leadership, declares she is ‘not a quitter’

Speaking on her RAF Voyager aircraft before arriving in China on the three-day trade mission, Prime Minister Theresa May has defended her leadership by declaring: “I am not a quitter and there’s a long-term job to be done.”

Asked why some of her MPs appeared to be undermining her, May told reporters: “I am doing what I believe is important for the sake of the country.”

However, she also acknowledged that some of her work could be better communicated, saying “there’s always more for us to be able to do to talk to people about what we’re achieving”.

When Sky News asked her whether her dissenting MPs risked a Corbyn government, May further clarified: “We are in government. The next General Election is not until 2022. What we’re doing now is doing the job that the British people asked the Government to do which is to deliver on Brexit.

“They want us to do that. But In doing that they did not vote for nothing to change when we come out of the EU, but we also want to deliver for them on things that matter on a day-to-day basis.”

A government document, which was meant to be shown confidentially to cabinet ministers this week, was leaked to the BuzzFeed. The report had suggested that the UK economy would be worse off after Brexit whatever deal is struck with Brussels. May later clarified that parliament will be given the government’s economic impact assessments on Brexit, but only after she has reached a final divorce deal with Brussels: “When the time comes for parliament to vote on the final deal, we will ensure that parliament has the appropriate analysis on which to be fully informed, on which to base their judgment.”

May’s leadership has come under fire recently. She was compared by one backbencher to a “tortoise”, while others said that “the window is closing” on May’s time in power.